The screensaver illustrates a day in the life of Johnny Castaway, who is marooned on a deserted island with only a palm tree to hear his woes. Johnny Castaway was a staple in many repurposed “computer rooms” of the mid-’90s.

Flying toastersĪfter Dark is a series of screensavers released by Berkely Systems, and the early packages included the popular Flying Toasters screensaver. Later variants even came loaded with all sorts of special features, like, you know, bagels.

Note: If you watch long enough you will eventually collide with a portion of a debris field in a galaxy far, far away. You can watch 10 hours of Starfield here, if you’re so inclined. This spacefarer screensaver was ubiquitous at the turn of the Willenium, because nothing says “warp speed ahead” quite like a dial-up connection. You can alter speed and even add some shoddy graphics to go full-on bad batch at Bonnaroo, or even upload images from your media library and have a regular “this is your life” walkabout through a phantasmagoria of low-res images. Who needs virtual reality when you can plop down in front of an HP Pavilion and behold this? The 3D Maze originally came with Windows 95 and 98, and the Doom-esque first-person thriller gave millions of individuals a real hoot. It would be preposterous to have a roundup of the best screensavers and not mention perhaps the most recognizable program of them all.

Vintage clock screensaver